Braves pounce on bullpen to spoil opener for Zack Wheeler and the Phillies

Wheeler pitched six shutout innings, but Phillies relievers allowed nine earned runs to turn the 20th opener at Citizens Bank Park into a rout.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson pulls reliever Jose Alvarado from the game in the eighth inning. He faced seven batters and retired only two.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Scott Lauber

Published March 29, 2024, 6:16 p.m. ET

It began, as only it could, with Charlie Manuel standing tall 20 feet from home plate and lobbing in the ceremonial first pitch six months after a stroke left him in critical condition.

Could you feel the goose bumps beneath the layers of clothing?

But it wouldn’t be baseball season in Philadelphia without criticisms of the manager’s handling of a game. Even Manuel, the most beloved skipper in Phillies history, wasn’t immune when he was in charge.

So, when the bullpen unspooled for nine runs Friday in a 9-3 thumping by the arch rival Braves on the Phillies’ 142nd opening day — after starter Zack Wheeler authored six scoreless innings — there were questions for Rob Thomson.

Start here: Did he consider leaving Wheeler in the game?

“No,” Thomson said, definitively. “We’ve got to take care of him.”

To be fair, Wheeler did throw 89 pitches. In a week or two, the Phillies will send their ace back out for a seventh inning, especially with a two-run lead. But 89 pitches is typical for a first start. In 15 major-league games entering play Friday, only five starters topped 90 pitches, with none throwing more than 97.

Besides, the Phillies believe they have a bullpen that Thomson can trust. Pin this one, then, on Matt Strahm, who gave up two runs in the seventh inning, and relief ace José Alvarado, charged with five in a seven-run eighth to send 44,452 paying customers home early from the 20th opener at sold-out Citizens Bank Park.

“That’s baseball,” Alvarado said. “I’m not thinking about anything that happened. Today, it’s over. Be ready for tomorrow.”

It’s not like the Phillies hit, either. They struck out 15 — count ‘em, 15! — times against Braves starter Spencer Strider and four relievers. The first four batters in the order — Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, and J.T. Realmuto — went 0-for-14 with seven strikeouts, usually not the least bit alarming after one game except that they didn’t swing the bat particularly well in spring training.

But the Phillies scored nearly 800 runs last season. With the same cast of characters, they will score a bunch of runs again, probably when they aren’t dealing with a whipping 17 mph wind in addition to Strider’s 99 mph heater and a slider that he unleashed more often than usual.

It’s fair, though, to wonder about the state of the bullpen, and not just because of one wretched game.

The Phillies let veteran closer Craig Kimbrel walk after he coughed up back-to-back games of the NL Championship Series and didn’t land free agents Jordan Hicks or Robert Stephenson, their top choices to replace him. Not pivoting to a Plan C spoke to their confidence in young righty Orion Kerkering, but he came down with the flu in spring training and will miss the first two weeks of the season.

At best, then, the bullpen is going through typical early-season flux. At worst, the Phillies are a pitcher short.

“They know what they’re doing out there,” Wheeler said. “I have all the faith in them in the world.”

So much, in fact, that Wheeler didn’t resist Thomson’s hook after the sixth inning.

“I didn’t go that long in spring all that much,” Wheeler said. “It’s game one, start one. You don’t want to press on the gas too much. It’s a long season. Just got to keep that in mind.”

Strahm inherited a 2-0 lead on Brandon Marsh’s fifth-inning two-run homer and promptly allowed a leadoff single to Michael Harris II. Orlando Arcia followed with a one-out double that Marsh lined up but couldn’t haul in against the left-field wall.

The Phillies had righty Jeff Hoffman loosening, but Thomson stuck with Strahm, even though he knew the Braves would put righty-swinging Adam Duvall in the game. Another fair second-guess. (”Didn’t mind the matchup,” Thomson said, “[Strahm] on Duvall.”)

Duvall lined a game-tying two-run double inside the left-field line.

“The Arcia [pitch], just not up enough,” Strahm said. “Duvall, I mean, he somehow kept it fair.”

Hoffman got the Phillies out of the seventh inning with the game tied. Alvarado was the sensible choice to start the eighth, with lefty-hitting Matt Olson and Harris due to bat. But he gave up a leadoff double to Olson and an RBI single to Harris before walking Travis d’Arnaud and Duvall and allowing an RBI single to Ronald Acuña Jr.

Thomson suggested that Alvarado might’ve had difficulty getting a feel for the ball in the chilly weather.

Alvarado said it wasn’t a factor.

“It’s OK,” he said. “I’m happy to see my command right now, especially my fastball. A lot of wind today. That’s no excuse. Throw it away.”

Alvarado left behind a bases-loaded jam for Connor Brogdon, who made the team in part because Kerkering wasn’t ready. He wild-pitched one run in, walked in another, and gave up a three-run double to Olson.

With that, the rout was on.

“It was very uncharacteristic of our entire bullpen,” Thomson said. “A lot of walks. Just didn’t seem to have a feel for throwing strikes. They’ll be better. I’m not concerned about that.”

Kerkering is expected to make a minor-league appearance Saturday at triple-A Lehigh Valley. He’ll pitch again there Tuesday, then likely make another appearance or two before he’s eligible to come off the injured list on April 9.

“On the right track,” he said, as he packed his bag after the game.

Surely, Kerkering’s return will help. And opening day does tend to spark overreactions, one way or the other. As usual, and especially with a bullpen, time is required before reasonable judgments can be made.

“The confidence is always going to be there in those guys,” Schwarber said. “They’ve done such a good job for us. A blip on their radar. There’s no losing confidence in any of those guys out there. We’ve got, in my personal opinion, one of the best bullpens in the game. Whenever those guys get the ball, we’ve got a really good feeling.”